Capturing the Experience of Agency: Insights From Systemic Functional Linguistics

• In Event: 68.048 - Methodological Complexities of Understanding Learning

Abstract

A sense of agency is critical for learners, but only a handful of methodological tools have been used to explore its complexity (Martin, Sugarman, & Thompson, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to describe the diverse agency experiences emerging when systemic functional linguistic tools (Martin & Rose, 2007) were used to analyze the narratives of 64 GED® learners. In this sequential mixed methods study, interviews were coded for linguistic variables and descriptive statistics guided qualitative discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003). Participants narrated a range of agency experiences: individual, reliance on other (e.g., teachers, family), constrained, and related to actions and resources. This methodology allows researchers to explore definitions of agency capable of expressing a diversity of experiences.

Authors

• Abigail W Konopasky, George Mason University

• Kimberly Marie Sheridan, George Mason University